spissus

Pronunciation

• IPA (Classical): [ˈspɪs.sʊs]^[1]
• IPA (Ecclesiastical): [ˈspis.sus]^[1]

Forms

spissus (feminine spissa, neuter spissum, comparative spissior, superlative spississimus); first/second-declension adjective^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Proto-Italic *spisso-, perhaps Proto-Indo-European *spid-to-.^[2][1] The likeliest cognates are Ancient Greek σπίδιος (spídios, “extensive, wide”) and Ancient Greek σπιδνός (spidnós, “dense”), while Lithuanian spįsti (“to swarm”) is further away in meaning.^[2][3] Like crassus and grossus it may have an expressive double consonant.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

De Vaan dates it from Naevius, Köbler from Plautus.^[2][4] Caecilius says Hope makes everything slow.^[3] Köbler dates Caecilius 230/220–168 BC.^[4]

Semantic evolution

Its first sense was of progress, laborious and slow, as Caecilius' Hope that makes all things sluggish.^[3] Of substances it meant dense, solid and compact, as Lucretius' things that seem hard and dense, and of things packed together close and thick, as thick sand, dense shade and a thick crowd; blows or kisses came thick and fast, as in Petronius.^[3][5]

Döderlein says dēnsus and spissus are of things close to one another, while angustus and artus are of narrow space.^[6] In Medieval Latin it meant “frequent”.^[7] Its sense developed in Italian spesso “thick; often”, and Late Latin inspissāre gave English inspissate in the 1620s.^[2][8]

Timeline

• c. 235–200 BC – Naevius uses it.^[2][4]
• 230/220–168 BC – Caecilius says Hope makes all things slow.^[3][4]
• 96–55 BC – Lucretius speaks of dense things.^[3][4]
• before 66 AD – Petronius speaks of thick-falling kisses.^[3][4]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Laborious, slow, sluggish.^[3]
2. Dense, solid, compact.^[3]
3. Close-packed, thick.^[3]
4. (of blows, kisses) Thick and fast.^[3]
5. (Medieval Latin) Frequent.^[7]

Word family

• spissigradus
• spissitās
• spissitūdō
• spissō
• conspissātiō
• conspissātus
• inspissātus
• spissāmentum
• spissātiō
• spissē
• spissescō
• subspissus

Related words

• dēnsus
• crassus
• English inspissate

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b c d e f Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
5. ^ Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
6. ^ Döderlein, Ludwig (1874), Döderlein’s Hand-book of Latin Synonymes, tr. H. H. Arnold, Andover: W. F. Draper
7. ^ a b Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
8. ^ Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com